


Mr. Caffrey there's a call for you.

by Ethel09



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 00:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3671301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethel09/pseuds/Ethel09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A second chance shouldn't be extended with one hand and retrieved with the other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mr. Caffrey there's a call for you.

"Mr. Caffrey? There's a call for you on line two."

"Oh, Mr. Caffrey, call on line two."

Janice, the new clerk in White collar department, felt a burst of annoyance. Why was agent Burke repeating what she had just said, with that stupid smirk ? The young CI, with his usual easy going nature, just smiled, said it was probably his lawyer and asked permission to use agent Burke's phone.

And then Burke repeated her sentence again, the two other agents sniggering as if he was being incredibly funny :

"Go ahead. Mr. Caffrey had a call on…"

Janice usually prided herself on her even temper, but at that moment something in her just snapped and instead of going back to her desk, as she was about to, she turned around and said :

"What is wrong with what I said ? It's the way I inform everyone in this office that they have a phonecall. Next time you have a phonecall, _Mr_   Burke, how to you want me to adress you ?"

The three agents looked at her as if the furniture had suddenly begun to talk. But she didn't wait for an answer and turned on her heels. She didn't retreat fast enough not to hear agent Jones say with a short and somewhat embarrassed laugh :

"Another victim of the Caffrey charm !"

Janice shrugged.No matter what they could think of it, she had said what she wanted to. Hopefully that could make them think a little. That would serve them right. She was quite fed up with the way the agents, even the members of his team, sometimes treated Neal Caffrey. The short scene that had just happened was typical of that. They would open a bottle of champagne to celebrate the fact his innocence had been proven, but wouldn't let him forget his status at the bureau, even for a minute.

As for her, she had been working here only for two weeks. How would they have reacted if she had suddenly addressed them as "Diana" or "Peter" ? Was she the only one, in spite of the little time she had spent here yet, who could see beyond that young man's cheerful and self-assured facade, and notice the flicker of hurt in his eyes any time he was facing disdain or mistrust, especially from the part of his closest co-workers ?

Janice believed in second chances. But to be seized, a second chance had to be offered in earnest, not extended with one hand and retrieved with the other one.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I always wondered why Peter repeated what the clerk had said, in front of her to boot, to make a fun of it. It seemed to me rather rude, both towards Neal and towards the clerk. Her sentence was perfectly normal, and she didn't have an especially flirtatious tone. So I imagined a clerk both touchy and insightful, and what she could have said.  
> We learn in another episode that the name of the clerk of the bureau is Janice, so I kept it.


End file.
